A team of scientists from Conservation International, partnered with A Rocha International and Papua New Guinea’s Institute for Biological Research, has revealed more than 200 new species of life that they discovered in a remote region of Papua New Guinea. The findings include new mammals, frogs, insects and plants — and more than 100 arachnids. (Some of the species are so distinct that are also belong to new genuses.) Most photogenic of the discovered animals is a tube-nosed fruit bat that bears a startling resemblance to the Jedi Master Yoda of the Star Warsfilms. Whether LucasFilm plans to sue the bat for copyright infringement is unknown.
The scientists, who spent two months in 2009 in New Guinea’s little-explored Nakanai and Muller mountains, emphasized the importance of the discoveries in the battle to conserve the world’s ecosystems.
“[The new species] should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don’t know about Earth’s still hidden secrets and important natural resources, which we can only preserve with co-ordinated, long-term management,” Conservation International’s Leeanne Alonso told theDaily Mail.